About Roger Mortimer, 1st Baron Mortimer

Roger Mortimer b. 1231, d. 1282; 1st Baron Mortimer

son of Ralph de Mortimer and Gwladys Ddu, daughter of Llewelyn ab Iorwerth

Sir Roger married Maud de Braose about 1247. Maud was born about 1230 in Bramber Castle (or Arundel), England. She was the daughter of Willaim "Black William" de Braose and Eve Marshall. She died before 20 Mar 1301 .

2. Edmund Mortimer, 2nd Baron Mortimer (1251- 17 jul 1304). Edmund was recalled from Oxford University when his older brother Ralph died, and was made heir. Edmund married Margaret de Fiennes, the daughter of William II de Fiennes and Blanche de Brienne. Had issue, including Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March

3. Isabella Mortimer, (c. 1248 - 1292). She married first 1260 John Fitzalan, 7th Earl of Arundel, (14 sep 1246 - 18 mar 1272) . married second Robert de Hastings

4. Margaret Mortimer, died 1297. She married Robert de Vere, 6th Earl of Oxford

5. Roger de Mortimer was born about 1256, lived in Wigmore, Herefordshire, England and died on 3 Aug 1326 .

6. Geoffrey de Mortimer was born about 1254, lived in Wigmore, Herefordshire, England.

7. William Mortimer was born about 1258, lived in Wigmore, Herefordshire, England and died in 1297 .

BIOGRAPHY

Roger Mortimer (1231-1282), 1st Baron Mortimer, was a famous and honoured knight from Wigmore Castle in Herefordshire. He was a loyal ally of King Henry III of England. He was at times an enemy, at times an ally, of the Welsh prince, Llywelyn the Last. In 1256 Roger went to war with Llywelyn ap Gruffydd when the latter invaded his lordship of Gwrtheyrnion or Rhayader. This war would continue intermittently until the death of both Roger and Llywelyn in 1282. They were both grandsons of Llywelyn ab Iorwerth. Mortimer fought for the King against the rebel Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester, and almost lost his life in 1264 at the Battle of Lewes fighting Montfort's men. In 1265 Mortimer helped rescue Prince Edward and they made an alliance against de Montfort. In August 1265, de Montfort's army was surrounded by the River Avon on three sides, and Prince Edward's army on the fourth. Mortimer had sent his men to block the only possible escape route, at the Bengeworth bridge. The Battle of Evesham began in earnest. A storm roared above the battle field. Montfort's Welsh soldiers broke and ran for the bridge, where they were slaughtered by Mortimer's men. Mortimer himself killed Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester in crushing Mintfort's army. Mortimer was awarded Montfort's severed head and other parts of his anatomy, which he sent home to Wigmore Castle as a gift hor his wife, Lady Mortimer. Roger Mortimer died in 1282, and was buried at Wigmore Abbey, where his tombstone read: "Here lies buried, glittering with praise, Roger the pure, Roger Mortimer the second, called Lord of Wigmore by those who held him dear. While he lived all Wales feared his power, and given as a gift to him all Wales remained his. It knew his campaigns, he subjected it to torment."

Roger Mortimer (1231-1282), 1st Baron Wigmore, was the son of Ralph de Mortimer and his wife, Gwladys Ddu, daughter of Llywelyn the Great. He was a famous and honored knight, and a loyal ally of King Henry III of England. He was at times an enemy, at times an ally, of Llywelyn the Last.

Mortimer fought for the king against the rebel Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester, and almost lost his life in 1264 at the Battle of Lewes fighting Montfort's men. In 1265 Mortimer helped rescue Prince Edward and they made common cause to lure Montfort into a trap.

In August 1265, Montfort's army was surrounded by the River Avon on three sides, and Prince Edward's army on the fourth. Mortimer had sent his men to block the only possible escape route, at the Bengeworth bridge. The Battle of Evesham began in earnest. A storm roared above the battle field. Montfort's Welsh soldiers broke and ran for the bridge, where they were slaughtered by Mortimer's men. Mortimer himself killed Hugh le Despencer, 1st Baron le Despencer. Finally, the royalist forces crushed Montfort's army and killed Simon de Montfort himself. Mortimer was awarded Montfort's severed head, which he sent home to Wigmore castle as a gift for his wife, Lady Mortimer.

Lady Mortimer was Maud de Braose, daughter of William de Braose, Lord of Abergavenny by Eva Marshall. Roger Mortimer had married her in 1247. She was, like him, a scion of a Welsh Marches family. Their children were:

Ralph Mortimer, died 1276. Edmund Mortimer, 2nd Baron Wigmore (1251-1304) Isabella Mortimer, died 1292. She married (1) John Fitzalan, 7th Earl of Arundel, (2) Robert de Hastings Margaret Mortimer, died 1297. She married Robert de Vere, 6th Earl of Oxford Roger Mortimer of Chirk, died 1326. Geoffrey Mortimer, a knight William Mortimer, a knight Their eldest son, Ralph, was a famed knight but died in youth. The second son, Edmund, was recalled from Oxford University and made heir. Roger Mortimer died in 1282, and was buried at Wigmore Abbey, where his tombstone reads:

"Here lies buried, glittering with praise, Roger the pure, Roger Mortimer the second, called Lord of Wigmore by those who held him dear. While he lived all Wales feared his power, and given as a gift to him all Wales remained his. It knew his campaigns, he subjected it to torment." [edit] Sources -------------------- ROGER DE MORTIMER, son and heir, a minor at his father's death, is said to have been born at his father's castle of Cwmaron. He had livery of his inheritance 26 February 1246/7; and at Whitsuntide 1253 was made a knight by the King at Winchester. He was serving in Gascony in 1253, and 1254, and from 1255 to 1264 was chiefly occupied with his duties on the March, opposing the successes of his cousin Llewelyn ap Griffith, who was gradmaclly uniting all the Welsh chieftains under his leadership. In the disputes between the King and the Barons in 1258, Mortimer at first took the Barons' side, and was one of the twelve chosen by them to act with twelve chosen by the King, and one of the twenty-four appointed to treat about an aid for the King. In October 1258 he attested the King's proclamation for the observance of the Provisions of Oxford, and in Apr. 1259 was sworn of the King's Council. The "Provisions" drawn up by the Barons in that year directed that Roger de Mortimer and Philip Basset should accompany the justiciar. On 11 June of that year he was appointed one of the commissioners to demand satisfaction from Llewelyn for breaches of the truce, which on 25 June was prolonged for one year. He was present at the confirmation of the treaty with France, 21 July 1259. On 19 May 1260 the Council of Magnates appointed him constable of Hereford Castle. On 17 July following he arrived in London to attend a Council, and on that day Llewelyn's men took Builth Castle, of which Mortimer had custody for Prince Edward. In December 1260 he had a licence to take game and to fish along the Thames and its tributaries. In December 1261 he was commanded to send his seal, if he were unable to come in person, to have it affixed to the writing made of peace between the King and the Barons. The whole of the years 1262 and 1263 he spent in fighting Llewelyn with varying success. On 3 December 1263 he was one of the armed nobles with the King when Henry demanded, and was refused, entry to Dover Castle; and in January following attested, on the King's side, the submission of the quarrel between Henry and the Barons to Louis, King of France. On 6 April 1264 he was with the King at the taking of Northampton, and captured a number of prisoners; and in May was with the King at Lewes, but fled from the field to Pevensey. He and others who had fled were allowed to return home, giving hostages that they would come to Parliament, when summoned, and stand trial by their peers. Mortimer and the other Lords Marchers did not attend Montfort's "Parliament" at Midsummer 1264, but were constrained to make peace with him in August. In September Mortimer, as constable of Cardigan, was ordered to give up the castle to Guy de Brien, Montfort's nominee. The Marchers again broke the truce, but before Christmas Montfort and Llewelyn finally reduced them to submission. Soon afterwards Roger and the others were banished to Ireland for a year, but did not go; and in December he had safe conduct to see the King and Prince Edward, who was at Kenilworth. In June 1265 he was among the "rebels holding certain towns and castles throughout the land, and raising new wars." Later in the same month he contrived the plan, and furnished the swift horse, by means of which Prince Edward escaped from Hereford Castle and came to Wigmore, where he and Roger de Clifford rode out to meet him and drove off his pursuers. At Evesham, on 4 August 1265, Mortimer commanded the rearguard; and after Montfort's death his head was sent to Mortimer's wife at Wigmore. Mortimer was liberally rewarded, receiving, among other grants, the "county and honour" of Oxford with lands forfeited by Robert de Vere. In September 1265 he was at the Parliament at Winchester. From Easter 1266 to Michaelmas 1267 he was sheriff of Hereford. On 4 May 1266 he, with Edmund the King's son, and others, was given power to repress the King's enemies; but on 15 May he was heavily defeated by the Welsh at Brecknock, escaping only with difficulty. He took part in the siege of Kenilworth in June 1266. In February 1266/7 he quarrelled with Gloucester over the treatment of the "disinherited," whom Gloucester favoured. He was present at the Council at Westminster, 12 February 1269/70. Shortly before Prince Edward sailed for the Holy Land, in August 1270, he was made one of the trustees for the Prince's estates during his absence on the Crusade. On 12 September 1271 he was summoned to "Parliament" at Westminster. In December 1272 he put down a threatened rising in the North, and the following February was sent to Chester to inquire into complaints against Reynold de Grey, justice there. In 1274 and 1275 he sat as a justice. He was one of the magnates having large interests in Ireland present in Parliament at Westminster, 19 May 1275, who granted the same export duties on wool and hides in their ports in Ireland as had been granted by the lords in England. In October following he was chief assessor of a subsidy in Salop and Staffs. On 12 November 1276 he was one of the magnates at Westminster who gave judgment against Llewelyn; four days later was appointed "captain" of Salop and cos. Stafford and Hereford and the Marches against the Welsh prince. In 1279 he held a splendid tournament at Kenilworth. On 27 October 1282 the King ordered, "as a special favour which has never been granted before," that if Roger should die during his present illness, the executors of his will should not be impeded by reason of his debts to the Exchequer. He married, in 1247, Maud, eldest daughter and coheir of William DE BRAOSE, by Eve, sister and coheir of Walter (MARSHAL), EARL OF PEMBROKE, Marshal of England, daughter of William, 4th Earl of Pembroke, Marshal of England. He died shortly before 30 October 1282, at Kingsland, co. Hereford, and was buried at Wigmore, being aged about 50, and in harness to the end. His widow Maud had various instructions during the Welsh wars, as had other barons of the March. In 1292 she had protection, as staying in Cymru on the King's service. She died shortly before 23 March 1300/ 1, when the writ to the escheator issued. [Complete Peerage IX:276-81, XIV:488] ________________________

Roger de Mortimer, who, in the 31st Henry III [1247], paying 2000 marks to the king, had livery of all his lands excepting those whereof Gladuse, his mother then surviving, was endowed. In six years afterwards he attended the king in his expedition into Gascony and in a few years subsequently, when Lewelin, Prince of Cymru, began again to make incursions upon the marches, received command to assist Humphrey de Bohun, Earl of Hereford, in the defence of the country lying between Montgomery and the lands of the Earl of Gloucester. In the 42nd of the same reign [1258] he had another military summons to march with the king against the Welsh, and, being in that service, had a special discharge of his scutage for those twenty-six knights.' fees and a sixth part which he held in right of Maud, his wife, one of the daus. and co-heirs of William de Braose, of Brecknock. In the two years afterwards, he was made captain-general of all the king's forces in Cymru, all the barons marchers receiving command to be attendant on him with their whole strength, and he was the same year constituted governor of the castle of Hereford. But notwithstanding this extensive power and those great resources, he was eventually worsted by Lewelin and constrained to sue of permission to depart, which the Welsh prince, owing to his consanguinity, conceded. After this he took an active part in the contest between Henry III and the insurrectionary barons in favour of the former. He was at the battle of Lewes, when he fled into Cymru and afterwards successfully planned the escape of Prince Edward. The exploit is thus detailed by Dugdale: "Seeing therefore his sovereign in this great distress, and nothing but ruine and misery attending himself and all other the king's loyal subjects, he took no rest till he had contrived some way for their deliverance; and to that end sent a swift horse for the prince, then prisoner with the king in the castle of Hereford, with intimation that he should obtain leave to ride out for recreation into a place called Windmersh; and that upon sight of a person mounted on a white horse at the foot of Tulington Hill, and waving his bonnet (which was the Lord of Croft, as it was said), he should hasten towards him with all possible speed, which being accordingly done (though all the country thereabouts were thither called to prevent his escape), setting spurs to that horse he overwent them all. Moreover that being come to the park of Tulington, this Roger met him with five hundred armed men, and seeing many to pursue, chased them back to the gates of Hereford, making great slaughter amongst them." Having thus accomplished his prince's freedom, Mortimer, directing all his energies to the embodying a sufficient force to meet the enemy, soon placed Prince Edward in a sitmaction to fight and win the great battle of Evesham (4 August, 1265), by which the king was restored to his freedom and his crown. In this celebrated conflict Mortimer commanded the third division of the royal army and, for his faithful services, obtained, in the October following, a grant of the whole earldom and honour of Oxford, at that time and by that treason forfeited. The Dictum of Kenilworth followed soon after the victory of Evesham, by which the defeated barons were suffered to regain their lands upon the payment of a stipulated fine, but this arrangement is said to have caused great irritation amongst the barons marchers, (Mortimer with the rest), who had acquired grants of those estates. He was, however, subsequently entrusted by the crown with the castle of Hereford, which he had orders to fortify, and was appointed sheriff of Herefordshire. After the accession of Edward I [1272], he continued to enjoy the sunshine of royal favour and had other valmacble grants from the crown.

He m., as already stated, Maud, dau. and co-heir of William de Braose, of Brecknock, and had, with other issue, three sons, Edmund, William, and Geffrey, upon whom, having procured the honour of knighthood to be conferred by King Edward I, he caused a tournament to be held at his own cost at Kenilworth where he sumptuously entertained an hundred knights and as many ladies for three days, the like whereof was never before known in England, and there began the round table, so called from the place wherein they practised those feats, which was encompassed by a strong wall in a circular form. Upon the 4th day the golden lion, in token of triumph, having been yielded to him, he carried it (with all that company) to Warwick, the fame whereof being spread into foreign countries occasioned the Queen of Navarre to send him certain wooden bottles bound with golden bars and wax, under the pretence of wine, but in truth filled with gold, which, for many ages after, were preserved in the Abbey of Wigmore, whereupon for the love of that queen, he had added a carbuncle to his arms.

3162. 1282, Friday next after the Feast of St. Nicholas. INQUISITION POST MORTEM of Roger Mortimer, touching lands and tenements in the lordship of Nerberd. Latin. Copy 1621. (See Cymmrodorion Record Series NO. 7, part ii, pp 73-4.)

466. 1283, Friday next after the Feast of St. Michael the Archangel. INQUISITION touching the lands of Roger Mortimer in the lordship and in lordship of the English of Nerberd. Latin. Copy made 20 Jan. 1603/4.